Uruguay
The Uruguayan government promotes a legal clarification on right of way at signaled intersections
The proposal seeks to clarify what happens when a driver turns on a priority road and, at the same intersection, another vehicle faces a stop or yield sign. The issue divides opinion in the Chamber of Deputies and among specialists.
The president of the National Road Safety Unit, Marcelo Metediera, defended the Executive Branch’s initiative to amend the traffic law and clarify right of way at intersections with stop or yield signs, according to la diaria.
The bill adds a paragraph to item 6 of Article 17 of the Traffic and Road Safety Law. The current wording states that a driver who changes direction or direction of travel must yield to others. According to Metediera, in statements to Subrayado reported by la diaria, that text creates confusion with other items in the same article, such as the one that gives priority to the vehicle approaching from the right at unsignaled intersections and the one that exempts signaled intersections with right of way from that criterion.
The amendment promoted by the government establishes that the driver who turns retains priority only against the other driver who, at that same intersection, has a STOP or YIELD sign. In the statement of reasons, the Executive Branch argues that there are currently differences in interpretation that lead to disparate enforcement criteria depending on the part of the country.
Metediera said, according to la diaria, that the debate has been going on for years and is a concern for traffic departments in different municipalities. He also stressed that, in Unasev’s view, this is not an isolated situation, but a nationwide problem. The initiative had already been approved last year by the organization’s Executive Board and is now being considered by the Transport, Communications and Public Works Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.
Objections arose in that committee. Colorado lawmaker Mauricio Viera, who in June 2025 presented a bill with the opposite solution, believes that the driver who turns must yield even if the other driver faces a STOP or YIELD sign. During Metediera’s appearance, he warned that the Executive Branch’s proposal would, in his view, imply a profound change in the way people drive in Uruguay and could generate an effect opposite to the one sought, according to la diaria.
From the Institute of Civil Law of the Faculty of Law of the University of the Republic, by contrast, they backed the change. According to what Andrés Mariño, a member of the chair, told the committee, the amendment is favorable because it aims to resolve the conflict over the priority of the person traveling on the priority road but losing that condition when turning. For that academic body, the proposal is appropriate and could help reduce disputes in traffic, la diaria reported.
Sources
About this note. Written by El Notero with the assistance of artificial intelligence, based on what was published by the cited media outlet. El Notero did not do its own reporting on this event.
